April 12, 2011
09:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2011-12

NASA Telescopes Help Discover Surprisingly Young Galaxy

April 12, 2011: Astronomers have uncovered one of the youngest galaxies in the distant universe, with stars that formed 13.5 billion years ago, a mere 200 million years after the Big Bang. The finding addresses questions about when
the first galaxies arose, and how the early universe evolved.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was the first to spot the
newfound galaxy. Detailed observations from the W.M. Keck
Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii revealed the observed
light dates to when the universe was only 950 million years
old; the universe formed about 13.7 billion years ago. Infrared
data from both Hubble and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope
revealed the galaxy's stars are quite mature, having formed
when the universe was just a toddler at 200 million years old.
The galaxy's image is being magnified by the gravity of a
massive cluster of galaxies (Abell 383) parked in front of it,
making it appear 11 times brighter. This phenomenon is called
gravitational lensing.